Watchdog group sues Illinois city's reparations program over giving money based on race

Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday it filed a lawsuit against Evanston, Illinois, to stop the city from paying Black residents reparations.

"There's a right way and a wrong way to do them. So reparations are to repair. And so we have provided in this country reparations in the past when somebody has been wronged by the government, and we try to make that person whole," said Michael Bekesha, a senior attorney at Judicial Watch.

"The reparations programs that you're seeing around the country that are being talked about aren't that. They are just entirely giving money, usually to Black residents solely on the basis of race. And I mean, that's just problematic," he added.

Evanston will issue $25,000 to 44 residents in reparations payments, the City's Reparations Committee announced on Thursday.

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Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit against the reparations program over its use of race as an eligibility requirement. The program provides $25,000 direct cash payments to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between the years 1919 and 1969. Evanston was the first U.S. city to pass a reparations plan, pledging $10 million over a decade to Black residents.

Judicial Watch represents five plaintiffs who allege the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

"Five people that, but for the color of their skin, would be eligible for $25,000," Bekesha said.

"The best outcome would be for the court to declare the policy unconstitutional, prevent the city of Evanston from providing any more reparations payments based on race, and make whole any non-Black resident or descendant of a resident who, you know, would be otherwise eligible for the payment," he added.

"The Equal Protection Clause is that the government can't discriminate against citizens based on their race or gender or national origin. The government shouldn't pick winners and losers based on characteristics that are completely separate from whether or not somebody has been harmed or injured."

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"The city cannot comment due to pending litigation," a spokesperson for Evanston told Fox News Digital.

So far, 137 people have received reparations payments totaling $3.47 million, and more are expected by year's end, reaching 171 recipients with about $4 million allocated to direct descendants.

The payments are intended to cover housing expenses, Evanston official Cynthia Vargas told the Chicago Tribune.

Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, said during a meeting last week that residents will be contacted in the coming weeks to inform them their payments are on the way.

According to a city memo, the fund had received $276,588 from Evanston's real estate transfer tax. The committee discussed taxing Delta-8 THC products to sustain funding in the future. Alderman Krissie Harris acknowledged the tax would not significantly increase revenue, though it would "help keep moving that number forward" in the reparations process.

As of Jan. 31, the reparations fund had not received any philanthropic donations and is primarily supported by cannabis sales and real estate tax revenue.

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"The good news about this Evanston lawsuit is it stopped any other programs from being implemented, as folks have waited. It's outrageous that the money continues to be spent illegally based on race," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News Digital.

"I mean, they're giving people money simply based on race. It denies access to this benefit simply because of the color of someone's skin," he said. "It's government discrimination."

Reparations can take many forms but broadly refer to payments or other compensation to the descendants of Black Americans affected by slavery or past discriminatory government policies.